No dimensions on the plan, so I am not sure if this would work --

Working off of Option #1, instead of an "L" shaped seating area, have the two sofa/loveseats facing each other longways, a few feet off the back wall with a coffee table int between - this way, you can still have your beautiful bookcase on the back wall as the focal point of the room

I am afraid I don't entirely understand your plan... are the purple lines walls? In plan 1, where there are no lines, not even thin ones, does that mean that the space is totally open? (if so, to what?)

A European way to treat this space would be to make the kitchen quite dressy, in a dining room sort of way. I've seen the French take the dining table, and move it closer into the actual kitchen (you don't need that open area that an L-shaped kitchen creates). They would also run a built-in bookcase along the whole back wall, and treat the dining area as a dining/library. If you do that, you would be left with lots of space for more interesting furniture arrangement in your living room.

One thing that I think would tie this look together is the flooring-- will you be changing it? A look I have seen here quite a few times is a natural unvarnished floor, in either oak (a very light French oak without much graining), or cherry. It looks as if it has just been sanded, and is truly beautiful -- people walk on it with boots, and it is just fine. Anyway, something like that with rough dark grey/charcoal linens, a Moooi ShadeShade light, maybe some suede and leather (vintage French club chairs in a tobacco colour?), lwoer kitchen cabinets painted a charcoal...mmm, lovely...

Another idea: why not inset a banquet (suede-covered) into a wall of bookcases, with the table in front? That would be comfy and gorgeous...

I think the purple lines are the windows

couldn't you combine the two options? have your bookcase along the wall but do a different seating arrangement, like in option #2 or however you need to do it to fit. maybe with one of the couches with it's back to the entry and a long narrow table behind it? i don't think you should have the two seats facing each other, or else you will get that subway seating feel.

I'm not sure this is correctly titled, since it looks like the kitchen remains the same in both plans.

Since in effect you are looking only at furniture plan (unless I am missing something), don't sweat it yet and just move stuff around once the space is complete.

As per Patrick's comments it looks like you're considering more organization at this point, although you did mention about changing the wall adjacent to the fridge. If it's a new space, you may want to take some time before doing any renovations per se to see how you use the space. I'm all about function first so I like to take some time to see how I'll move around in a space, what spots I tend to stay in the most etc. As far as arranging goes, you can tape out the floor to get an idea of how things might fit or if you're energetic, use cardboard boxes to emulate the furniture and spend some time walking around in it to see how the traffic flow works for you.

It sounds like you're thinking a book case will look great but it's not clear if you have one or have lots of stuff to put on one. You're option 2 suggests a showpiece but option 1 makes it seem more like storage as it would be difficult to view and not particularly functional from the living space. I'm not a huge fan of large bookcases as I am incapable of keeping them neat.

I like Robyn's idea of swapping the loveseat position. You might also consider using a bench or two chairs between the kitchen space and the living space instead of a second loveseat. Using lightly framed or wire chairs won't take up as much visual space as a club chair or high back loveseat and could offset the subway seating feel ange_lune mentioned. The "back to the entry" placing of a couch/loveseat ange_lune suggested may also work if you like to move from the dining space to the living space unimpeded. If you want to emphasize the room separation, floor coverings can help. Keeping the furniture on a large rug sort of forms it's own space.

It's a nice space you have with lots of options. Have fun!

Monica's touched on the kitchen and I agree about trying to use more of that space if you can. You might consider a small round bistro table and chairs, again to save some space and soften up the angles in that corner placement if you want to keep it there or shifting it closer to the cooking space.

Thanks to everyone for the input. In answer to your questions, yes Monika1, the purple represents windows. Other than the area marked "entry" the blank is wall (sorry about the oversight). The flooring in this part of the apartment is very nice. I don't know how well you can see it in the picture, but it's a ceramic tile with a sort of natural stone look to it. Perfect for the earthy look I want to create, so no plans to replace it.

The questions was written before I had moved in. I had workers here, so I needed to make decisions about where to put electrical points and whether I wanted them to change the short wall that juts out. Certainly better to do these things while the apartment is empty. Given my druthers, I'd rather have moved in and played around with the furniture I had, but then I wouldn't be able to get the workers to do their thing while the apartment is empty.

Gitchigumi, I have tons of books that I love - they need a good home. I ordered a large made-to-measure bookcase with doors on the bottom to give me some badly needed storage. It's coming this week. I hope it looks good.

I decided to go with a variation of Robyn's idea, instead of two sofa's opposite each other (which I was dying to do, but thought I didn't have the room for it and did want to change the wall when I was so close to moving in and so far behind on renovations) so I bought a sofa and plan to buy 2 open, light, comfy chair to put opposite.

Thanks everybody :)
Apartment therapy is the best!